lot's of New's in November!

Natalie discovered that sitting on the potty wasn't so bad after all!  She's been practicing in the bathroom with a couple of successful trips!  Last week, Natalie was walking towards the bathroom and saying "potty, potty"... So I swooped her up and ran her in there.  Much to my amazement she went right away!  Soooo....

 

 Then we brought the potty seat in the living room and put some panties on.  She thought that was pretty funny that she was wearing Sissy's panties!  And she wanted to nothing to do with the toys, but to sit her cute little buns on the potty, was entertaining enough for her. 

 

Especially watching a video of Sissy at her school Halloween party.....

 

Then the exhaustion set in... for me.... She was up and down off the potty trying to figure out how to sit back down herself.  I was so afraid she was going to have an accident...! You would think it was common sense to just back up to the thing and plop your buns down... Butt... 

 Not for Natalie.... She had to step in the potty first.... Which is just so gross! Then.... Get one foot out at a time and...

 

 Finally... Sit down.... with a little cheer for herself ;-) 

 

And just in case anyone was wondering what Mr. Cockin was looking like these day... It's Movember. And here he is... Looking like a pedophile!

 

Clara saw a beautiful Cinderella bike at Costco last week and insisted that she have it.  I told her she already has a beautiful black bike at home that she needed to learn to ride first to prove she's really ready to have this special bike she wants... First sunny day we got in  a couple weeks and she was ready to prove to me she could do it!

 

And she did!

 

With a great big smile!!! 

 

This was last year in June.... I can't believe how much she's grown!  One more month and she'll be 4 already :-(

 

 

 After we laid Natalie down for a nap... Clara asked for a Halloween treat.  She was so excited when she found a sucker that was a ring! And asked if she could pose for some pictures! Silly girl...

 

 

 

 

 

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween Morning!  Clara's school had a fun Halloween party, and she decided to be Strawberry shortcake again this year.  But this time, she got the wig and some freckles!  Nana and Papa watched Natalie so Mommy could go with her.

 

At Papa and Nana's showing off how cute she was...

 And Natalie... She is saying "cheeeeese"!

 

 And now every time she sees the camera she says "cheese" and then runs up to you before you can get the picture and says "Natty".  Loves to see herself!

 This is a great cheeser face!

 

 And one last one ;-)

 

 Getting ready to go to the school party!

 

 Were all so lucky to have such a special Nana and Papa!!!! 

 

 Here's little Miss Strawberry...

 

 A quick picture on the porch before we set off to do some tricker treatin'

 

 We were all smiles....

 Until mean Mommy made Natalie stop eating the ribbon off the witches hat.  Then we were all tears.  This is a typical moment... Natalie screaming and crying and Clara covering her ears holding back the tears....

 

 Time to do it for real now... TRICK-ER-TREAT!

 

 Natalie heading straight to her Papa...  shoes off...

 

 and hat off!  She wasn't a fan of that hood....  I didn't dare take my good camera out since it was raining off and on. But she did finally leave the hood on if we were outside.  By the 3rd door, she was into knocking with her big Sis and would even say "teet".  As the candy went in the bucket, she'd let out a "ja-ba".  For those who don't know, this is "thank you" in Natalie's own little language.

 

Once we got home, Clara was told she could hand out the candy as the kids came by.  We told her only to give out 2 each.  Chad and I went off into the kitchen to start dinner.  Clara hollered "all ready for the kid's".  I went out to look and she had them stacked two high and spread across the bottom step.... Our little organized child.... We have LOT's of treats left... We only had 1 knock at the door and 5 of them at once.  Now Mom and Dad have a lot of sweet treats to eat ;-)  Sucks to be us!

Halloween Fun Festivities...

While Clara is at school Natalie and I get alot of play time... Mommy loves it, but.... I must confess... I truly appreciated quiet time while she napped when school was in session!  Those days are over!  One of my very special clients brought the girls over some super fun Halloween cookie cutters and sprinkles...  Let Halloween begin!

 Natalie was head over heals about the ribbon on the package... It kept her entertained for quite some time while I made some dough for Clara.  I knew she would want to make cookies right away!

Once the fun was done with the ribbon... Off to coloring... She's quite the artist these day, between sampling each color with her palate, she does manage to get some beautiful scribbles on the paper.

 

 And off she went... following specific directions and doing a better job than I probably could....

 

 Cutting them out!

 

 gorgeous!

 

 And not to mention... She's quite the decorator!

 

 This was her favorite part.  She kept "accidentally" dropping the sprinkles on the counter.  Apparently a wet rag wouldn't have done the proper clean up job, so her fingers and lips did.... Good thing we weren't sharing these with anyone....!

 

 And while we made cookies, Dadddy took a little siesta by the fire.

 

 TA-DA!

 

 Oh... Look who's up, just in time... !

 

 Love this little grin!

 

 Good afternoon Natalie... Nothing like waking up from a nap for a cookie!

She figured out instantly how to say cookie and stood under the counter where they sat saying "cookie, cookie, cookie... pease...."!

 

 We were able to go out the pumpkin patch, but didn't stay long.  It was COLD & windy!!! But not raining!

 Going through the hay maze....

 

 Thanks for helping Papa!!!

 

 And a little trike ride... They had lot's of fun activities for little ones...

 

 Weeeee....

 

 Cheese...

 

 In this moment... Our Silly Daddy was asking Clara if she wanted one of the chocolate chips they goats were offering. Pip didn't fall for that one!

 

Bouncy..... bounce.....



 Honestly, this is the face she had most of the time we were here... Clara's famous scowl!  Not sure what this one was about at the moment

 

 It's time for Natalie to get serious about her "pumkee".  Gloves off!

 

 She doesn't usually get to pick them up, but since they were so little, they were just the right size!

 

 She was pretty excited about having that Pumkee in her hands!

 

 Time for a horse and carriage ride around the farm!

 

 Queen of the haystack!

 

 Thank you so much Lederman's for having us over to carve your home grown pumpkins!  They were real beauties!!! And we can't wait to do it again next year ;-)

Owen thought it was pretty cool to pull out this big chunk of pumpkin guts!

 

 As Elle meticulously put her seeds in the egg container so she could keep track of how many were in her pumpkin.  Pumpkin #1 that is... I think she carved 3 total that day.  What a machine!

 

 They all loved that oooey gooeeey feeling of the guts...

 

 

 Papa... I think we need to get you some glasses!

 

 Clara sat there for an hour, being so cautious, and punching holes for her carving!  She did an awesome job!

 

 And I was so impressed with Owen and Elle's carving skills!  They did a GREAT job at it!!!!!

 

Not sure how I didn't get a picture of them once they were done????!  But they all turned out really good.... Thanks for the wonderful day Lederman's... We love you guys and wish we could see you more often...